This has been a WONDERFUL weekend!   My oldest son married his darling sweetheart, Nicole:).  It took a lot of planning to decorate a wedding so far from our Arizona home, but it was a joy to do.   I had so much fun making their very unique rock climbing themed, “naked” wedding cake. A naked cake is a cake where there is no frosting covering the sides of the cake.  It is very “earthy”.  I made all of the layers in their favorite oatmeal with coconut pecan filling.  (I will devote a post just to that delicious cake and give the recipe as well- it really is the best cake ever!)

Nicole loves the outdoors and trees. She really wanted a natural cake that reflected her natural personality. And since they both enjoy , no are passionate about, rock climbing, it seemed only fitting to make their cake look like a flower covered mountain that they are ascending to the top of:)

I found this fantastic rock climbing cake topper on Etsy from Cake Topper Connection.  It was absolutely PERFECT!!  Isn’t it just so cute to see the couple climbing the cake and reaching the top?  I just fell in love:)!

I have been working the past few weeks on the beautiful deep red and cream gum paste roses.  The gum paste started out as a bright, chinese red.  I added coco powder and blue food coloring to get this lovely, earthy, deep red rose.  I placed them in an egg carton under the back seat to transport them all the way to Ogden, UT .  They made it, yea!  Here they are cutting this masterpiece, and of course feeding each other a bite — lol:)

Life is definitely SWEET this week! –Tracy